Scotland ring changes for Six Nations clash against France

"The responsibility for last week lies with the coaches and myself", said Townsend after unveiling a XV showing six changes on Thursday.

The Scotland boss has rung the changes for the France game, bringing in six players.

France scored a late try to lead Ireland 13-12 in Brunel's first game in charge, only for Irish flyhalf Jonathan Sexton to land a stunning dropped goal from 44 metres out in the last act of the game.

The nature of Scotland's defeat has seen all optimism from outside the camp extinguished after they conceded four tries, and a further loss would all but end their chances of making history after such a promising start to life under Gregor Townsend. "If they start hitting soft shoulders, then they can get a bit of a rumble on and become unsafe and get into that traditional way that they are very good at, off-loading and getting behind you which can be quite risky", said Barclay, who sounded like a man who was trying to ignore a movie he had seen before.

Townsend's decision to move Greig Laidlaw to No10 in place of the misfiring Finn Russell for the final quarter was a masterstroke.

Bouncebackability - Both these teams had disappointing starts to this year's Six Nations, but France will be the team feeling slightly better about things. "We got away from that last weekend". The bounce of the ball eluded the covering Laidlaw and Thomas had his second try, Machenaud's conversion furnishing the visitors with a 17-7 cushion. The 32-year-old was added to the squad after Matthieu Jalibert's knee ligament injury and his partnership with Maxime Machenaud will be critical.

With just two minutes on the clock French wing Teddy Thomas evaded three challenges on his way to scoring.

"We were just massively frustrated with the quality of our performance last week so for us it's just about us going out there and showing that doesn't represent what we're about as a team". Thomas beat three defenders easily down the left to score a sensational individual try. The pressure started to toll on France and their errors mounted up.